Jacinda needs a reminder or two about sexual assault in socialist circles

by Cameron Slater on March 15, 2018 at 10:30am

Labour would have you believe that this scandal is all just a one off. They ignore Mike Williams talking about any, even of similar circumstances, when he was president. They forget the Darren Hughes incident. And, now they are trying to say this an isolated event.

Jacinda Ardern has clearly forgotten one of her speeches that she gave when President of IUSY (2:38)

I’m a big believer that conversations can be the start of change. So let’s talk about the Chiefs.

I should disclose up front that they’re my team – have been since the very beginning. I’m a Morrinsville girl.

In part I blame my early onset tinnitus on moo loo bells. That’s how I know that, regardless of whether you are a rugby fan or not, these players are role models for a lot of young people. And that’s why headlines like the ones we’ve seen this week are so depressing to read.

They must be even more depressing when they are about your beloved Labour party, which you lead.

It’s 2016, and these are professional players – and that means being held to a high standard on the field as much as they are off it.

Indeed, and the same for MPs and party officials. But, funny that, she has discounted the President and General Secretary resigning, or anyone else for that matter, over allegations a minimum of four youths were sexually assaulted at a Labour party event.

In an interview revealed this week, Kevin Roberts, the kiwi global advertising boss, suggested that gender diversity wasn’t an issue in his field. I obviously don’t work in his world, but many who do have stated that Roberts is unequivocally wrong.

But what do we do about that? In fact, what do we do about the vast range of fields where we continue to have massive under representation of women in senior roles? We should be asking why.

If there are claims that some are apparently choosing not to take on management roles, why is that? Are they completely unappealing work environments? Is there unconscious bias?

How about we ask women. Find out what’s going on and address it. I’m not holding my breath that will be the outcome in this particular case.

These conversations stop the moment there’s a resignation. It’s the PR quick fix – usher the source of the controversy away. But that solves nothing.

I don’t think Kevin Roberts should have been shown the door, or chosen to walk through it as the case may be – not when he needs to be a part of the conversation.

After all, apologies followed by silence changes nothing, and change is what we need.

Covering up, doing nothing, acting late in the piece as the story is about to break, then getting former PSA activists now working in counselling services to state that silence is golden, to protect the victims, isn’t really a good look. In fact, it goes against what Jacinda Ardern was claiming was needed back in 2016.

Of course, she is now hiding behind the fact that there is a police investigation underway. It is amazing how one’s words can come back to haunt you, especially when you were virtue signalling all along.

Do I believe Jacinda Ardern knew nothing? Not bloody likely. Labour and Jacinda Ardern need to start telling the truth.

-Fairfax

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.